A little over a week after Neymar put pen to paper on a new five-year deal with Barcelona, Real Madrid have announced that Gareth Bale has committed his future to the club by signing an extension running until June 30, 2022.
Last week, we implored the lot of you to look at Cristiano Ronaldo.
This week, we are imploring the lop of you to keep looking at him. He really wants you to.
Good night pic.twitter.com/v9aHmCggSz
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 30, 2016
In order to talk smack, don’t you have to back it up? Goalkeeper Diego Alves failed to do so on Saturday in Valencia’s last-second loss to Barcelona:
When it comes to penalties, Diego Lopez is one of the best. Of the last 35 penalties he's faced, Alves has saved a staggering 17 of them; so he has good reason to be a little cocky. Two years ago, he even smack talked Cristiano Ronaldo before saving his penalty to end their title run.
Lionel Messi helped Barcelona defeat Valencia at La Mestalla on Saturday, as he cooly converted a 94th minute penalty to give Barca the 3-2 win. He also happened to lose his damn mind after Valencia fans struck Neymar with a bottle.
The match was tied at 2-2 as the minutes bled away, and it seemed destined to end as a draw. Thankfully for Barcelona, Valencia defender Aymen Abdennour was in a charitable sort of mood as he hacked down Luis Suarez in the 92nd minute to concede a penalty.
FC Barcelona are the darlings of club football. From the imperviously well-mannered Lionel Messi to their representational standing as “more than a club” for Catalanism, their playing style and history invites adulation from all corners of the globe.
However, Barcelona is not without its insidious side. These are the 10 terrible truths that Barcelona would prefer you didn’t know about.
It's clear to anyone watching that while still very good, Cristiano Ronaldo is on the physical decline. Questions have arisen surrounding his ability to remain effective while not being the team’s centerpiece. He is still clearly very capable, but his ineffeciency is indicative of a man not quite ready to accept his new role.
After over three weeks on the sidelines due to a groin injury, Lionel Messi made a triumphant return to football by scoring Barcelona’s fourth in their 4-0 victory over Deportivo La Coruna. The assist was fantastically provided by Neymar and the finish from Messi was emphatic.
It must’ve been an excruciating break from playing for Messi, watching Barcelona lose to Celta Vigo and then Argentina flounder in World Cup qualifying.
Having pulled off one of the bigger upsets in the 2016 Copa del Rey Third Round by defeating second division side Albacete 2-1, Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa have now drawn Spanish giants Real Madrid in the round of 32.
Cultural Leonesa plays in the Segunda Division B, the third tier of Spanish football. Based in Leon in the north of Spain, the club has only experienced life in La Liga on one occasion since the club's inception in 1929, that being the 1955-56 season.
Sir Alex Ferguson famously quipped before the 2009 Champions League Final that Barcelona "get you on that carousel and they make you dizzy with their passing.” The rhythm and tempo of their passing makes opponents feel as though they’re chasing ghosts around the pitch.
When Barcelona announced plans to revamp the Camp Nou at a cost of €600 million, the sporting advantages were obvious. The capacity is being upped from 99,354 to 105,000, and, more importantly, a roof is being added to cover the seats around the entirety of the stadium, ensuring that opponents encounter a wall of noise regardless of the significance of the match.